Database Errors

[Ghostrider]

After a bunch of new things ships, objects, aircraft, etc, I now have database errors. Using Shipman and ACman, I have made sure that all of my stock ships and AC are installed, I have 90 ships and 88 aircraft, and still am getting the error!

I added tons of things to my mdlnames.txt file. Any ideas of how to fix this without reinstalling?

Thanks,
GR

[bearcat241]

The only fix for the mdlnames-based error is to delete things you'll never use in a mission from it. If you're doing a PTO only install, you'll never need the CFS1 German, French and British style apartments and all those other European and British landmarks either...you can start with those and then try it again before moving to something else.

[Ghostrider]

Thanks Bearcat - I'm flying again - what I did was to rename my mdlnames.txt, and reactivated an older one. But what am I losing out on by doing that? Will all of those new objects not show up in my mission builder or something? Can I delete the file and somehow reconstruct it manually or automatically? Thanks for your advice.

Corn-fused
Ghostrider

[bearcat241]

It would have been better to keep it and make the edits i recommended. But now that its deleted, you can always rebuild, but you're gonna eventually get back to the same problem again. Whenever you add/delete objects in the mdlnames, what you mostly gain or lose is the ability to place the objects as a mission designer. Furthermore, in some cases where certain deleted objects are used by an addon mission designer you might get a few missing object errors.

[Ghostrider]

Didn't delete it, just renamed :amen: will keep messing with it...

GR

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Bearcat:

1. So you can delete the CFS1 objects from the mdlnames file? Well that's good to know.

2. Anyone know the max size for the mdlnames per chance???

3. Will an object load in a downloaded mission if you have it but made no entry in the mdlnames??

I don't think I'll be running into any Flakpanzers in the Bismarck Archapelago/PNG AO either. If I do I'm gonna break out my Skyraider with miniguns and rocket pods :)


Didn't delete it, just renamed :amen: will keep messing with it...

GR

You're gonna need the entries for the addons you're putting into your Hailstone campaign I'm afraid.

[Fibber]

Quick question for you, but I think you may have already hit on a answer, I deleted all the CFS1 objects and when I went to use some missions and airfields I keep getting message such as _can't find jp_tower, oiltank etc. Is it because these were CFS 1 objects used by the designer? Specifically I get these when Etticos' Euro targets is in play. No disparing of his work is to be implied here.

[bearcat241]

Yes SW, you can delete them and the magic number on my machine is >38 kb (can't speak for anyone else of course).

Fibber, you should never delete the CFS1 airbase infrastructures, factory, vehicle or weaponry objects in a Euro-Med install. Many of the older Euro missions and camps were built with these, that's why you get errors. The newer missions (incl those oldies-goldies converted by Rami) use true CFS2 objects.

For Euro-Med installs i only delete the Japanese entries - everything except Jap aircraft weapons and AAA. For PTO i deleted the Euro apartments, Euro landmarks, German vehicles and any German AAA infrastructure.

[Fibber]

Ghost;:wavey:
I have found that when I add objects to the mdl file ,I ;; out a line below the original file then add a title ( with a addition date) on the ;; line indicating where the additions came from. Then ;; a line above and below the title and add in the additions. I then try to keep the list in aphabetical order of additions by origination. Helps me to find the problem :faint:childs for correction ,or deletion ,easier.
As you are probably aware of , the ;; tells the program to ignore what is on that line.

Call me anal, ( or Ishmael :wavey:) but it is my 2 cents and helps me to keep it in order and avoid duplicate entries
from different downloads.:ernae:

[bearcat241]

One more tip: a lot of entries that remain after deletion have long descriptions. You can truncate or abbreviate those descriptions a bit and further reduce total filesize there also.

Everytime you edit an open document in Notepad you can look at the bottom status bar to see how the change affects file size. When your edits have achieved less than 38 kb you're in the safe zone.

[Fibber]

Bearcat,
Thanks :wavey: for the info. When I deleted them I was under the impression that they were extraneous in CFS2. Now I know better and am attemping to recover them. When I started my ETO rebuild I used a copy of another theaters Info folder which has given me some interesting mixes!!!!! :faint:

[Ghostrider]

It sounds like I may have just gotten the file too large - deleted all of the europe/med WWI stuff that was in it, and bingo - next question: where the heck are Xavier's tents and piers? Those are the only errors I'm getting now - can't find them here - did I miss something?

Thanks all for your help,
GR

[bearcat241]

It sounds like I may have just gotten the file too large - deleted all of the europe/med WWI stuff that was in it, and bingo - next question: where the heck are Xavier's tents and piers? Those are the only errors I'm getting now - can't find them here - did I miss something?

Thanks all for your help,
GR

You can search the SOH download bin under his handle to get all of his archive.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Indeed.. some good info too.

GR - don't truncate the descriptions for the stuff you build with... remember our issues?

[Ghostrider]

I never truncate - still don't know where BigE44 came from... I have the piers, but sstill no joy on anything about tents under Xavierb???

GR

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I never truncate - still don't know where BigE44 came from... I have the piers, but sstill no joy on anything about tents under Xavierb???

GR

I can't find em either.. maybe they're hidden in one of the AF packs... they sound familiar :typing:

[Fibber]

Look in the Add-on's section down the bottom in the library search an look for "Xavier Berdaguer" He is there.

[Fibber]

Look here ; http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&page=downloads&FileUploadName=xavierb2

[Ghostrider]

Search Add-ons by xavierb2 brings up 57 files - I'll be damned if any of them say anything about tents!

I must be losing it - I've done this like 10 times today, and no luck. If someone can provide me a link to the file? Pleeease?

GR

[bearcat241]

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/soh_ftp/cfs2-scenery/cfs2hangars.zip

[Fibber]

Psullkeys did some inf_tex files. Is it possible that is what you are looking for?

[Fibber]

LOL!!!!! Bearcat, I read right pass that entry :faint:while checking ALL the read-me files!

[Fibber]

Isn't BigE44 part of the Marianas campaign carriers?

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Isn't BigE44 part of the Marianas campaign carriers?

Yes Fibber, thanks for the tip! http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?lloc=downloads&loc=downloads&page=info&FileID=1011

[Ghostrider]

Told you I wasn't making it up, SW :icon_lol:!

Bearcat thanks so much for the link! Hangars = tents - what was I thinking?

Thanks so much!
GR

[bearcat241]

You're welcome... i noticed that Xavier has two archives (Xavierb and Xavierb2), but only one of them shows in the author's drop menu when searching by name and this cfs2hangars.zip file its not in the archive of the one name showing. So searching under his handle can be a wee bit complicated. Someone in the back office should think about consolidating his files into one archive for easier searching.

[p14u2nv]

Gr, I found the tents file you were looking for here too;

http://www.simviation.com/cfs2scenery17.htm

Of course after I posted the link I see you already found them. This is what happens when one naps at the wheel...

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Going back to Post #6, question 3:

3. Will an object load in a downloaded mission if you have it but made no entry for it in the mdlnames??

Also:

What is the result of player mdlnames mismatches?

For example: I loaded some missions by another member. The mission called for several JMK (Usio) and VN Ships. These for the most part do not include a mdlnames entries doc in the download, so if a player wants to used them in MB he will make up his own.

I noticed that when my game tried to load the mission it failed with a "cannot find Ship X in the library" message. The only reason I could thing of that this would happen is because of my and his mdlnames decription entry - which differ and are imprinted on the .mis file.

True?

[highpockets]

Thanks guys for the solution to my problems.. I had the same issues when trying FF & QC. I tried ship removal--no help: deleted some planes recently installed--no help. Saw this thread and went back to my MTO install and switched mdl.txt file to my "old one' that I had copied & saved before! Now everything works. I know now I will have to add back in some objects, but I will pay attention to what & when. Is the 38kb sort of a max for this file? The one that was giving me trouble was 64kb

[bearcat241]

Ok, lets be absolutely clear on this guys. As i said earlier, 38.5 kb is the max allowance for MY machine only - i can't speak for others.

You have to understand the nuances of this sim to love her. Every time she loads up, she absolutely, positively will take into account the total number of addon items installed throughout the main directory and any associated outside folders, like shared scenery folders in another location. This is why the mdlnames max allowance on one guy's machine is 38kb and another guy gets 64kb. The guy with the larger allowance is the guy with the lesser number of total addons. The more stuff you add over time, the more the mdlnames file becomes problematic. And that includes every material category of addons.

I won't bother repeating all the steps to counter this problem here (most have already been covered with this thread and any topic dealing with multiple installations of CFS2) so be sure to bookmark this page and any threads on multi-installs for future reference.

[Ghostrider]

OK guys, I'm at it again - this time, my mdlnames.txt is only 32KBytes, Planes =73 ships = 88. WTH else is going on here? The reason my plane number is so low is that I was consolidating skins into aircraft folders, instead of having a whole aircraft for each skin, and using ACMan. Could I have screwed something up while doing that?

I was also messing with my scenery library - deleted filelist.dat from the 2 areas I messed with... Just trying to remember what I was doing.

Thanks again for all of your help!

GR

[Shadow Wolf 07]

a skin, set up to load as a plane counts toward your total. For example if you have the Wolfi SB2C with four skins, set up in such a way that in your plane drop-down menu you can pick a plane with each skin... you have 4 planes, not just one.

[Ghostrider]

I see, said the blind man... That's probably my problem then. So you just save HD space, but you don't get ahead with the plane limits... Damn. I am up to Four installations now. Early and late war, USN/USAAF installs. Still have too many planes!

Thanks Bro,

GR

[bearcat241]

To add to what Shadow Wolf is saying, the sim counts every aircraft entry in every aircraft.cfg of your main AIRCRAFT folder. So again, four skins listed in a single aircraft.cfg counts as four individual models. So you don't accomplish anything other than saving a little disk space on duplicate files and folders like paneling, sound and model if you're only using one model folder for all four.

[Ghostrider]

Seems to be more of a PIA editing the aircraft.cfg files to save not much on disk space.

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Create a "Hangar" folder for seldom used, non-stock planes and put them back in when a mission calls for them. Activate a specific skin when you need it.

[Ghostrider]

Yeah, I use MW's ACMan for that - it seems to work quite well. Also use his Shipman to do the same with ships. I'm just trying to beat the system so I can have more A/C and skins available. Alas, it seems not to be in the cards. More installs, anyone? The good news is, I just installed an NVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GPU, and I'm getting 150 FPS on my Mac! 8GB of RAM is arriving tomorrow! :ernae:

GR

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Damn! You planning to flight control a moon launch? :faint:

[Ghostrider]

Muhuhuhuhuhahahahahaha! (Diabolical Laughter!) I'm about ready to start over on Hailstone, man - A lot of lessons learned, you know. And I still have all of that groundwork done, so it wouldn't be as much work this time around. Also, I've learned about using layouts, and other labor-saving devices - have some ideas I wish I'd done the first time, etc. Anyway, thanks for saving my bacon on the database errors - I was about ready to dump that whole install (Late War USN), which contained Hailstone, of course... But it's all good now.

GR